Minister says no to PPSMI revival, to finetune Jawi script lessons

The Perikatan Nasional government has no intention of reviving the Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) programme advocated by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said Education Minister Mohd Radzi Md Jidin (photo, above).

He was responding to William Leong (Harapan-Selayang) in a parliamentary written reply yesterday.

Leong had asked if the government planned to reintroduce PPSMI and how it could improve on the policy.

"The Education Ministry has no intention to reintroduce the PPSMI policy," he said.

In April 2019, Mahathir, in his capacity as the acting education minister announced that the government had implemented PPSMI.

Mahathir had first introduced the policy in 2003 in his first stint as premier. PPSMI was scrapped in 2011.

Prime MinisterMuhyiddin Yassin, who was the then education minister, had said the programme resulted in fewer rural students passing Science and Mathematics.

This, however, was disputed by some, who said the results had improved under PPSMI.

In 2016, the government introduced the Dual Language Programme, where certain schools had the option to teach Science and Mathematics in Malay or English.

On another development, Radzi said the government would be finetuning the teaching of Jawi script in national-type schools (SJK).

"The ministry will again finetune the matter related to Jawi script (lessons) holistically," he told Steven Sim (Harapan-Bukit Mertajam) in another parliamentary written reply.

Radzi said the government would continue adhering to a cabinet decision on August 14, 2019, which reduced the Jawi script syllabus for Standard 4 pupils to three pages instead of the initial six.

The cabinet also decided the lessons would be made optional and would only be taught if approved by parent-teacher associations, parents, and pupils.

The government initially planned to introduce six pages of Jawi calligraphy lessons in the Year Four Bahasa Malaysia textbook beginning 2020.

Following backlash from Chinese and Tamil education groups, however, the cabinet decided to reduce the lessons to three pages and make it an optional subject.

Nevertheless, the compromise failed to appease critics. The United Chinese School Committees Association (Dong Zong) in particular had opposed the move, which it claims uses khat lessons as a medium to spread Islam and forcing it upon non-Muslim students. - Mkini